Justin Gaethje Explains Why Conor McGregor ‘Can’t Fight Through’
Prior to being finished by Floyd Mayweather in the tenth round of their Aug. 26 boxing match, Conor McGregor had seemed to tire, and in the aftermath of the fight, he admitted that this theory was true, while also admitting that he has had to deal with ‘patches of fatigue’ in some of his previous fights.
Why this is the case is unclear, but UFC lightweight contender Justin Gaethje feels as if the “Notorious” one’s cardio issues may be due to his lack of experience in grappling and wrestling:
“The reason he can’t fight through when he gets super tired is he’s never grappled,” Gaethje said during the promotion lunch for TUF 26 (via MMA Fighting). “You have to learn how to fight through when it sucks and it’s really hard. You have to be in that position over and over and over, to be able to perform in that mindset. The fact that he’s never wrestled or grappled, it doesn’t help when he gets super tired and starts questioning himself.”
As a former NCAA Division I wrestler, perhaps Gaethje has a point, as McGregor’s background is more in the striking department.
Either way, the Irishman performed better against Mayweather than most had expected him to, and Gaethje doesn’t feel as if MMA has suffered as a whole due to McGregor coming up short in his bid against “Money”:
“If he goes in there and gets knocked out, yeah MMA takes a hit. But it’s not gonna hurt us,” Gaethje said. “Because at the end of the day, all we have to say is, ‘Let’s have a real fight.’ In a real fight, in the street, when it comes to life and death, an MMA fighter will win 90 percent of the time against just a boxer. I’m content and comfortable with that.”
McGregor, who hasn’t competed in the Octagon since scoring a second round TKO victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 last November, is expected to return to MMA later this year or early next year.
Gaethje, on the other hand, is set to face off against Alvarez after the current season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) concludes.
